


New Roads

by Greensilver (Trelkez)



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-06
Updated: 2009-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-03 01:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trelkez/pseuds/Greensilver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Destiny is conditional.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Roads

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt "slash dragon, memory/future", for kuwdora.

There is a great deal the dragon does not tell Merlin -- sometimes by choice, sometimes of necessity -- but foremost among those omissions is this:

Destiny is conditional.

_If_ Arthur Pendragon outlives his father, _then_ he will become king. _If_ Merlin also survives Uther's reign, _then_ he will be the young Pendragon's most trusted advisor, _unless_ \-- and here the stray paths are many and varied, as thick on the ground as underbrush in the northern woods.

That Arthur Pendragon will rule in Albion is as close to certain as the future can ever truly be. All else is changeable; all else shifts on the winds.

The dragon chooses to look down only selected roads. If Arthur rules without Merlin at his side, magic will not return to Albion, and the dragon will be imprisoned beneath Camelot forever. Therefore, futures in which Merlin shadows the throne are preferable. If the king's ward turns on the throne, there will be war in Albion waged with magic, and its use will fall away when Arthur Pendragon dies. Therefore, futures in which Morgana remains loyal to the throne are preferable.

Other factors seem less significant at first, but in his enforced solitude, the dragon has little else than time in which to trace each strand back to its point of origin.

There is a connective piece that rests between King Arthur Pendragon and the changeable loyalty of the Lady Morgana: a woman, a servant destined to be more.

There is a connective piece that rests between King Arthur Pendragon and the guiding hand of Merlin Emrys: a knight, a peasant destined to be more.

If the knight does not return to Camelot, Merlin will die as Arthur's reign is just beginning. If the servant does not become queen, Morgana's betrayal is certain.

If both the knight and the servant ascend as they must, they will betray Arthur together.

The future is a tangled thing.

With each piece of the future the dragon gives over to the warlock's care, there is a shift in the winds, ripples cascading outward across a pond. Instructing him to seek out Arthur dims futures in which magic remains outlawed. Instructing him to allow the Druid boy's death briefly brightens a future in which Arthur lives to old age, and then seals that future away forever. Granting him the sword -- this, too, the dragon foresaw -- extends Arthur's life, and that of Albion.

The dragon chooses to look down only selected roads, and ultimately, that leads to his undoing -- for Merlin Emrys gains mastery over life and death on the Isle of the Blessed, and turns his knowledge against the old ways. The changes in course provoked by this one action aren't ripples, they're spirals, drawing the future down and down on a dark and twisted path.

That there will be war in Albion is certain. That magic will die out after the reign of Arthur Pendragon is also certain. No path leads to the true restoration of the old ways, and the dragon's future is more unclear than it has ever been.

All because of one warlock, and one choice.

That night, the dragon turns to Morgana in her sleep, sharing her visions. She sees Camelot abandoned, the crops left to wither; she sees Albion and the Pendragon line end together, in fire, in blood.

When she wakes, she's alone. She weeps in the silence, fists clenched against her temples, lip caught between her teeth.

_Morgana_, the dragon whispers, watching her startle and look wildly about. _Morgana le Fay, Morgana of the old ones._

"That's not my name," she protests, curling in on herself, forehead pressed to her knees. "That's not -- I'm not--"

_Morgana,_ he insists. _I'm waiting for you._

Morgana le Fay. Morgana the betrayer.

If the warlock will no longer accept the dragon's counsel, the dragon will turn to a new ally, and look down new roads.


End file.
